As the name suggests, the state-of-the-art modem aims to open the doors for LTE Category 16, a technology vastly improved from even the LTE 12 standard baked into the Snapdragon 820 SoC. SD820-powered devices should theoretically be capable of 600 and 150 Mbps peak download and upload speeds respectively, up from 450 and 50 for X10 LTE-equipped Snapdragon 810 systems.

For its part, Qualcomm is definitely going the extra mile to make the impossible possible, delivering peak download speeds that are ten times as fast… on paper than those of first-generation 4G LTE devices. Gigabit Class LTE is obtained basically by using more antennas and “more-sophisticated digital signal processing” than before, aggregating only 60 MHz of spectrum on three carriers.

But the best news of all is smartphones containing Snapdragon X16 LTE modems are expected to land in stores as early as “the second half of 2016.” Did somebody say Galaxy Note 6? LG V11? Nexus 6P… Max?

Adrian has had an insatiable passion for writing since he was in school and found himself writing philosophical essays about the meaning of life and the differences between light and dark beer. Later, he realized this was pretty much his only marketable skill, so he first created a personal blog (in Romanian) and then discovered his true calling, which is writing about all things tech (in English).